Galdia
by Ella Martenez
Summary: They think I'm mentally ill. Maybe I am, maybe this living nightmare is just a dream. I doubt it. I have been in a mental facility for two months now. The people who locked me up say I attacked a tourist. It isn't true. A TERRORIST attacked ME. I tell them the truth every time. NOT ACTUALLY A MAX RIDE FIC! WARNING! BUT IT'S BASED OFF MAX RIDE SO I'M PUTTING IT HERE! One chapter.


**Here is chapter one of my book. Enjoy.**

CHAPTER ONE

INSANE

They think I'm mentally ill. Maybe I am, maybe this living nightmare is just a dream. I doubt it. I have been in a mental facility for two months now. The people who locked me up say I attacked a tourist. It isn't true. A TERRORIST attacked ME. I tell them the truth every progress questionnaire they give me to fill out. Of course, the terrorist claims he's from Washington visiting his uncle. They never even contemplated that he was a big fat liar. Every criminal is.

The people who locked me up get paid more per person that they claim is insane. So of course the coincidence that my dad taught me Taekwando for defense is not a coincidence. So they just assume I'm lying so they can get an extra coin in their pocket. They pretend to try to help me, but they always happen to find something that will let them keep me in this underground hole. No, it doesn't even deserve the title of hole. Does that sound like a good bargain on my side? I sit and rot in my cell, while they get indoor and outdoor swimming pools? About one in fifty kids here are really mentally ill.

To eat we are served one bowl of porridge, (which I'm convinced that it has oleander in it,) and one carrot. That's it. No dessert, no snacks, it's like they don't care if we starve to death. When visitors come, they put so much food coloring in it to change it from vomit green to brown, I become a throw-up machine for weeks on end.

They say I'll never get out of here 'till I'm better. I disagree. I've been looking for ways to get out, I'll admit that it's hard, this place is sealed up tighter than wax. But I'll manage. Till then I have to stay in this dungeon. If there is a shred of happiness left in our lives, we need to keep it a secret from the facility. If a secret is kept from them, they'll find out and lock you up, no meals for a week. So we try our best to keep our secrets well hidden.

"Nadia Galdia, please come up and get your tray." That was me. I went up to get my tray, looked down at my porridge, and sighed. "

"The porridge is looking greener today Epa." I said. Epa the lunch lady snorted in exasperation.

"River Portamortage, please come up and get your tray." River came up, got his tray, looked down at his porridge, and sighed.

"Doesn't it look greener today Epa?" River said. She snorted in disbelief, and said

"Go eat your lunch you twins."

"Were not twins!" we said at the same time. Which ruined it.

"Esa Lee, please come get your tray."

River, my only friend in this dump, and I walked off to a table where we were almost alone, except for the one in fifty kids who were really insane. But he was at the other end, busy banging his head against the table. River and I were having our usual conversation when all off a sudden; a vision came to me. I saw the progress form, the door out of the facility, the lock on the door, and part of the movie Terminator 2. I almost yelled out, "Eureka, I've got it!" But I saved it for free time.

By the time it was free time, I was bursting to tell River. I did of course. As soon as River said, "Hi." I hooked his arm into mine and dragged him across the yard to a vacant bench and forced him to sit down. He was a lot stronger than me, but he was caught too off guard to resist.

"Come with me tonight if you want to escape." I exploded.

"Huh?" He replied.

"Tonight. Escape. What wasn't clear about that?"

"You have a plan to get out?"

"Well duh!"

"What is it?"

"You'll see."

"Come on Nadia, we've been through thick and thin!"

"No. But I promise you'll have front row seats when it happens."

"Awww, you're no fun."

"Is anybody?"

"Not really."

"I rest my case."

It was eight thirty, bedtime. But I wasn't going to sleep a wink. At twelve' o'clock midnight, I slipped out my paper clip that held the progress form together, and picked the lock on my restraints, then got up and went to work on the door. The security cameras would definitely see me so I opened my door just a crack, reached over and unplugged the wall strip that disabled the electricity in them. Only the ones pointed at my door. I knew for a fact that the gaurds who didn't fall asleep on the job watched my room. The rest would be too easy. Then I walked among the well-known walls to the boys half, then to River's room, and picked the lock on the door. He wasn't asleep, so I went over to him and picked his restraints.

We ran along the dark halls until we reached the door, I whispered to him,

"You keep watch, I'll pick the lock on the door."

"Ok." His quiet voice replied.

I quickly opened the door and took a whiff of sweet air. The almost silent sound of the frogs croaking comforted me, and reminded me of camping with my dad. The smell of evergreens filtered into my nose and I was almost sure I had died and gone to heaven.

"Ahhhhhh…."

Suddenly, the blaring alarm went off, the police would be here soon, and the facility would be here sooner. I could already hear the clip clop of the slippers running down the hall. River and I knew what to do. We ran out and dove into the thick brush.

We stayed in the brush till morning, taking turns sleeping. At about six thirty I saw a plump woman walking to the car with a stack of papers in her hand. We noticed she dropped one paper. Ten minutes later we came cautiously out of the brush, picked up the paper, and dashed back into the brush. I looked at it and read out loud,

"MISSING NADIA GALDIA AND RIVER PORTAMORTAGE MENTALY ILL PLEASE CALL (385) 270-8383 IF FOUND REWARD OF TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS."

They must have been both really desperate and really stupid. The brush is the one place to hide in the facility property lines. And ten thousand dollars! We weren't worth that much! I started to think and the thinking told me that we had nowhere to go. They knew where my dad lived so if we went to either of our father's they would catch us again. We would NOT go back, so I guess we were on the run until they forgot about us. Only god knows when that would happen.

The fact that we had no money dawned on us, and we understood we had to get some. We were both messy, but we had to get a job. We went to the bus station bathroom and had showers, and then we hopped on the bus and went to Edmunds with some money we found. I found work at a candy store and River got work at Radio Shack by pretending we were older. We agreed that River would listen to the police scanner that the shop owner kept on at daytime.

We couldn't stay like this forever, but we were going to keep working until we were able to buy two backpacks, some food, and a few blankets. River reported that almost every minute of every hour of every day the police were looking for us. So to avoid attention, we slept at the bus station with our faces to the wall.

I knew that we hadn't had any thing for a treat in a long time, so I asked my boss if I could take a couple pieces of candy. He agreed. It was nice to see River's never-smiling face light up at the sight of a Tootsie Roll.

One day I walked to the store to find a "missing" poster of us up on the wall. My boss saw me through the window, recognized me, and began to run after me, stumbling over customers. He chased me down St. Lakes avenue, Peach St, and Fifth Lane. It was a long run, and I was almost out of breath by the time we reached Seventh Avenue. But by diving into an ally, I found a dead end. He was closing in on me, and there was only one thing to do. Get caught and then escape. He dove on me, leaving a few scrapes and scratches in the process. He held my hands behind my back and walked back to the store to check the number.

Suddenly, I had an idea. I started to scream in agony among the millions of people on the street.

"Help! Help! I'm a hostage! He's crazy! He took me! Help!" I started to squirm and thrash around wildly. Millions of pairs of eyes were on me in a second. It was working! A pair of policemen started toward us.

"Excuse me sir, but we must excuse this girl from your presence." They made him release me and slipped cuffs around his hands. As soon as I was free, I started off for radio shack.

River was there. And we ran off. We got two backpacks, some food, and a few blankets at a convenience store. With still enough money to get us out of Washington state on the bus. It's amazing how much our luck was stretching. Sooner or later it would snap, and all this would come back and bite us in the bum.

This presented a problem…we had no idea where we were going. We could go to China and we would find "missing" posters. The people were being paid one hundred thousand dollars to keep us insane, each. So they would probably put posters on Mars.

**You like? Review. You no like? Review anyway.**

**-Fly On  
**

**Ella  
**


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